I don't know if the wood floors in our 1895 house are original, but they are old. The outline of the old trapdoor into the cellar is still in our dining room, and the home inspector when we bought the house said the third and final time the basement was dug/expanded was before 1960, based on the materials, so the floors are at least that old. There are a lot of gaps between the boards. It looks like some of the cracks have been filled with something which has since dried and broken, and only small bits are left.
Why are there so many gaps? Has the wood shrunk as it has aged and dried?
is there something I can use to fill the cracks? Would wood filler work okay? I'd like to refinish the floors, but that's not going to happen any time soon, not until we don't have toddlers in the house at least. I don't want to do it more than once!
Here's a pic of one of the widest cracks with a quarter for size reference.
Why are there so many gaps? Has the wood shrunk as it has aged and dried?
is there something I can use to fill the cracks? Would wood filler work okay? I'd like to refinish the floors, but that's not going to happen any time soon, not until we don't have toddlers in the house at least. I don't want to do it more than once!
Here's a pic of one of the widest cracks with a quarter for size reference.